Spacious townships, vast green spaces and high-end amenities — welcome to the world of integrated housing development. Realty experts indicate that projects with 1000 units and above are going to be popular in the South this year and cities like Bangalore and Chennai are said to be the hotspots for this kind of development. The trend for larger projects is driven mainly by the availability of large tracts of land, says Sheila Sriprakash, Chief Architect, Shilpa Architects Planners Designers, who has worked on numerous projects in this segment. Chennai alone has 45 ongoing projects and a majority are located on the outskirts. She says, “OMR, GST (NH-45) and the Chennai-Bangalore corridor are witnessing development of projects with 1000-plus units. GST is seeing more growth given the manufacturing hubs in the area, whereas OMR has housing catering to IT professionals.” A. Shankar, National Director, Strategic Consulting, JLL, says, “These projects are developed as integrated townships or residential developments. Most metropolitan cities such as Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon, Greater Noida, Kolkata and Hyderabad are seeing the development of such projects.”
Projects with 1000-plus units require huge investments and since they are located on the outskirts, developers focus on creating self-sufficient townships. Prashant Mirkar, GM-Marketing, House of Hiranandani, says, “Developers ensure offices, schools, hotels, retail outlets, supermarkets, restaurants, and cafés are within walking distance from their home. Our projects on OMR are equipped with a club house, sporting facilities and a shopping complex.” Facilities such as rain water harvesting, sewage treatment plants, and waste management plants are common. Arun Kumar, MD, Casa Grande, mentions that the percentage of people moving to areas such as ECR, Sholinganallur, and Kelambakkam is increasing. “Such areas hold great potential for development and are in huge demand. Apart from providing basic amenities such as gyms, swimming pools, and club houses, we focus on providing high-end facilities. One of our projects is sports themed with 20 sporting facilities that include football grounds, tennis and basketball courts.”
This trend has gained momentum in Chennai due to good connectivity. “There are over 50 large scale integrated township projects and most of them are located in the southern suburbs of OMR, GST Road, Oragadam, Sriperumbudur, and Poonamallee High Road. Few projects within city limits are located in Perambur, Korattur and Mogappair,” says Shankar.
Cleary these projects require large land parcels and developing adequate civic infrastructure is time-consuming. Most areas are yet to be equipped with roads, water supply and commercial development. Despite this, what is making these townships such a popular option among home buyers? Suresh Jain of Vijay Shanthi Builders says, “With skyrocketing land prices in the city, developers are focussing on development beyond city limits. As government intervention in infrastructure development in these areas will improve, it will lead to rise in land value in course of time. Most home buyers look at such townships as a great investment.” These large-scale projects address most of the social infrastructure needs. “Although they do not come with hospitals, schools, colleges, and cinema houses, their demand will not decrease as such facilities are privately run,” says Navin, Director, Navin Housing and Properties.
Sheila of Shilpa Architects points out that large scale projects require considerable financial resources to weather market volatility. “A few developers who have taken up large projects to capitalise on market opportunities have not been able to execute them,” she says. Although such projects come with the risk in terms of supply of residential units, the risk is diversified by integrating commercial, retail, school, hospitality segments into them. The 1000-plus unit projects are slowly gathering momentum as the concept of walking to work, school or shop is becoming popular. Apart from the change in family structure (from joint to nuclear family), rising income levels have led to a change in consumer profile. Shankar of JLL adds, “If planned well, integrated townships are definitely the answer to India’s growing housing woes, as they are efficient vehicles of social integration while offering the necessary infrastructure.”
Average size of apartments 1 BHK – 610 to 629 sq.ft. 2 BHK – 1165 to 1173 sq.ft. 3 BHK – 1589 to 1828 sq.ft. 4 BHK – 2050 to 2200 sq.ft. (Source: JLL) |
